The Belgian Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) achieved an important victory in the Benidorm World Cup after an exciting and disputed hour in which he made a mistake at the end with a fall that almost cost him a victory that he knew "sweet".
Quite an injection of confidence to win against his great rival and five-time world champion of the specialty, the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, attacked by bad luck at the start with a breakdown and in the end with a fall that left him off the podium.
Very close to the finish line, and after avoiding the last obstacles, Van Aert fell to the ground, but got up and avoided being hit by his fellow European champion Michael Vanthourenhout.
"My wrist hurts a little bit. It was a super stupid move on my part. I thought I had enough of a lead and I didn't want to risk jumping the beams on the bike, but I did it so fast while running that I made a mistake. It was an absolute mistake, but thank goodness I was able to regain my rhythm and win," he said.
An incident that Van Aert related to "destiny", since an incident occurred in his family on the eve of the Benidorm race.
"Maybe it was meant to be like this. My mother broke her wrist yesterday. My parents got married on July 13 and today I had shirt number 13," he noted with humor.
Van Aert admitted the "decaffeinated" battle with Van der Poel, as the Dutchman had a fateful day.
"I was unlucky, but I kept going and I felt pretty strong. Mathieu van der Poel was also strong and he was also very unlucky. We haven't had a real battle between the two of us. When he went down, I still had to beat the others. "It wasn't easy. I'm glad I made it," he explained.
Although "winning always tastes sweet," said Van Aert, "the goal was to feel good legs and I ended up happy with the feeling on the bike."
The Herentals cyclist is training this season in Spain "to his full satisfaction", but despite the victory in Benidorm he will not change his plan of not attending the World Championship in Tabor (Czech Republic) in two weeks.
"The World Cup? No, that plan does not change, but we will see an interesting race in Tabor," he concluded.
